Nasscom, DRDO join hands to develop innovative technologies

Under their memorandum of understanding, Nasscom and DRDO will leverage their expertise to develop cutting edge projects for the IT industry.

India's leading IT industry lobby National Association of Software and Services Industry (NASSCOM) has inked a deal with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop innovative technologies for the industry.

Under their memorandum of understanding, Nasscom and DRDO would leverage their expertise to develop cutting edge projects for the IT industry.

"Creating upstream linkages with the Indian R&D institutions is a key part of Nasscom's focus on developing India's innovation ecosystem," Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said in a statement in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"DRDO has been responsible for developing a number of leading technologies in multiple focus areas spanning across aerospace, control systems, communication etc, which makes it the obvious choice for this partnership. As the Indian IT industry moves up the value chain, these areas are both of interest and relevance," Karnik added.

According to the DRDO, the partnership would also help in increasing the involvement of the leading Indian IT companies in various development projects of DRDO.

"The MoU that we have signed seeks to facilitate defining long term strategic partnership with IT industry and to take further actions for finalizing methodologies for its effective implementation," said DRDO head M Natrajan, who is also the scientific advisor to the defence minister.

Natarajan said since modern military systems are gradually becoming more and more software-based, it is important for DRDO to work closely with Nasscom in various software development projects related to radars, electronic warfare systems, flight control systems, avionics, missile systems, and command, control and communication systems.